The Inspirations

Led by Teaching Artist Rebecca Goyette in collaboration with MoMA Prime Time and Midwood Senior Center

As part of Midwood Senior Center’s Active Adult Program—an initiative dedicated to enriching the lives of older New Yorkers through creative engagement—artist and educator Rebecca Goyette led an intergenerational dance project in partnership with MoMA’s Prime Time. The result was The Inspirations, a senior-led dance troupe formed through a series of workshops that celebrated movement as a democratic and transformative medium.

Goyette guided participants through explorations of postmodern choreography, drawing inspiration from artists such as Jérôme Bel, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, and Maria Hassabi—whose works emphasize accessibility, experimentation, and the beauty of everyday gesture. Using these influences as a springboard, the dancers developed original choreography grounded in their own life experiences, emotional narratives, and cultural heritage.

The culminating video installation—featuring performances and interviews with members of The Inspirations—honors the power of creative aging. It captures the vitality, humor, and resilience of the dancers, while also shedding light on the spiritual and sociopolitical themes that inform their movement. By centering the voices and bodies of older adults, the project challenges ageist stereotypes and repositions the senior center as a site of innovation, expression, and collective joy.

Under Goyette’s leadership, The Inspirations became more than a dance group—it became a model for community-centered artmaking that champions visibility, empowerment, and the radical act of moving together.